I sold my backpage ad for the first issue and used the money to buy myself the tablet I've been wanting for six months. It's a Wacom 6x8 Intuos 3 and it makes me feel sexy like a table grade hooker.

So I've never used a tablet before, and I seriously can't see how I went so long without one. This is going to double my quality and cut my production time in half. Here is the first test I did in Corel Painter 3.

Before
Simple cleanup and adjustment. Photoshop filters.


After
Shadows, light sources, softening and blending.


-and that only took me half an hour! I'm gonna practice some more before I start going back over all my finished pages, but once I'm done, that will be the 1st issue. 26 pages. I'm putting my order in with the publisher on the 20th. That gives me... 15 days to polish it until it glows.

So how do you remeber life before you got a tablet. What do you have? Anyone that doesn't have one yet?

I thought you'd be the type to own a tablet screen, what with you having a Batcave and all.

I just have to say that my tablet has helped me speed up my work so much! I don't know what everyone else has; I just have a Bamboo tablet and that's good enough for me. It's my first (and hopefully last) tablet and it came pretty cheap (@ $99) compared to some of the other tablets I saw.

Nope. I am, in fact, very very poor.

Wacom Volito 2. I recently lost the stylus when I moved house (which was a tad annoying, to say the least), and I felt the greatest relief when the replacement arrived.
There's a sense of achievement to be felt when your practising pays off and you can draw as well with your tab as on paper, and being able to manipulate the image with layers and filters and suchlike is a real help.

I could quite conceivably do without my tab, but it saves me money materials-wise and layers are love.

I've had mine (Intuos 3 6x8) for about three months and my nib already looks worn down. I don't think I've been that vicious to get this result.

Luckily they give your replacements though. But just a warning I guess: Be gentle :P

Wacom Cintiq 21UX.
I don't know how I survived without it.
I've probably cut my time down to about 1/5!
So far, in 1 1/2 years I've gone through about 4 or 5 nibs. (I use the 'pencil' nibs, the plastic ones are too slippery on the screen.

I'm usin my Intuos3. It's something like 12x8 or something (i dont know -- large enough). It works. I love it.

Like cartoonprofessor, I've got a Wacom Cintiq 21UX. It's gorgeous, and if it was human, I'd totally marry it.

I've only had it for about two months, but it speeds up my comic-creation-process like you wouldn't believe. Since I haven't had it for very long (and I've had a lot of non-art-related stuff to do), I haven't managed to wear down the nib yet, but I'm happy they sent me an extra set - I'll be going through them like a knife through butter once November's through.